AllENDT VAN rUKLEK, 

FIRST SUPERINTENDENT OF RRXSSELAERWICK, FOUNDER OF SCHENEC- 
TADY AND OF THE DUTCH POLICY OF PEACE 
\VITH THE IRFOrOlS. 



By WM. ELLIOT GRIFFIS, J>. I). 



A PAPER READ BEFORE THE ALIiAXY INSTITUTE, NOVEMBER, 18, 1S84. 



f 



ARENDT VAN CURLER, FIRST SUPERINTENDENT OF 
RENSSELAERWYCK, FOUNDER OF SCHENECTADY, AND 
OF THE DUTCH POLICY OF PEACE WITH THE IRIQUOIS. 

By Wm. Elliot Griffis, D. D.,* Domine of the Reformed [Dutch] Cuurch, 
Schenectady, N. Y., from June 1, 1877, to April 5, 1886. 

[Read before the Albany Institute November 18, 1884.] 

In tlie report of tlie Special Committee on Archaeology of the Albany 
Institute on the proposed erection of local historical monuments pre- 
sented April 26, 1881, and printed in volume X, the following para- 
graph occurs: 

''Our respected neighbor, the city of Schenectady, has a university 
whose success is gratifying to us — has an historical scholar in whose 
honor we speak, but it is sadly faithless to its most interesting history. 
It has no monuments of the great raid of 1G90, whose narrative was 
the theme of interest across the great sea — it has no memorial of 
Corlffir, who, going out of Albany to find the still more remote fron- 
tier settlements, by his sagacity and estimable qualities so won the 
hearts of the savages that thereafter they gave his name as the equiv- 
alent of Governor, and who died while en route to Montreal, where 
his excellence had won him an invitation from the Freucli ruler." 
(Transactions of the Albany Institute, vol. X, p. 143.) 

If not with "the stern joy that warriors feel," it is with a patriot's 
grateful appreciation that we pick up with our pen, the gauntlet thus 
thrown down, and hand it back on our nib, with a determination to 
wipe out the reproach of Dorp. The " University "—" old Union" 
[College] —fathered by Domine Dirck Romeyn, endowed by the 
Dutchmen of the Schenectady Church, made national by Dr. Nott, 
having nobly reared her sons in the past, will I doubt not, despite a 
season of reverses, regain vitality in head as well as body, and yet send 
forth many sons to fame and honor. Our historical scholar, Professor 

♦Pastor of Shawmut Congregational Church, Boston, Mass. 



O 

2 Arendt Van Curler. 

Jonathan Pearson, still hale and wise in sunny old age, has spoken for 
himself in goodly volumes of priceless lore. 

These are realities. 

The monument to the martyrs of 1690 is yet in the loins of the 
future, and the pockets of subscribers; but its local habitation is se- 
lected, and the sj^irit is willing. In due time, I doubt not, will ap- 
pear a child of art and memory, which shall perpetuate the virtues 
alike of the founder and the forefathers of the village in the pine 
woods, once spoken of as in " the far West,^' and made the theme of 
grave debate between London and Versailles. To add a further me- 
morial of a man who was great in goodness, as well as renowned in 
statecraft, is the purpose of this paper. 

It usually happens in history that the thunders, of battle, the noise 
of the drum, and the shoutings of great captains drown the still small 
voice of truth. Through the dust and smoke of war, the more sub- 
stantial victories of peace are discerned not at first, but later. Of the 
eccentric, the belligerent, and testy in church and state, the military 
on horseback, and the patroon on his manor, we have heard much; 
and epauletted and cloaked statues are beginning to be numerous. 
On history's sober page, or in Irving's classic jest, many names are 
famous or notorious; but, we maintain that of the Holland pioneers 
who laid the foundations of this commonwealth, and made it the Em- 
pire State, there is too little known. There is room for more monu- 
ments, as the true perspective of history retires some names to shadow, 
and brings others into the foreground. Of these, in my modestly sub- 
mitted opinion and in the estimation of historical critics who note the 
effect while aj^parently shortsighted as to the cause, none more de- 
serves honor in some enduring token, than the yeoman, Arendt Van 
Curler, the first superintendent of the Colony of Eensselaerwyck, and 
the founder of Schenectady. 

Yet no letters on a sculptured monument or in written essay can 
equal the noble expression of admiration from the uncivilized Indian. 
The first treaty of peace made between the Iriquois and the Hollanders 
at Norman's kill near Albany — classic ground by a historic stream, 
yet to be sung in epic verse — was and is called by them "the Cove- 
nant of Corljer." For over two centuries the red men betAveen the 
Hudson and the Niagara addressed the governors of New Amsterdam 
and New York as "Corl^er." When leaving their native hunting-grounds 
to follow their religious teachers to Canada, the Mohawks of Caugh- 
nawaga, though changing their faith, their allegiance, their habitation 



Arendt Van Curler. 3 

and their climate, yet carried with them as a potent talisman the 
cognomen of their benefactor. The name of Cnrler is now honored 
and fragrant in one American tongue, and in three European 
languages and civilizations. Two years ago, on the pnldication 
in Montreal of a Lexique de hi Langue Iriqnoise, by Father 
J. A. Cnoq, one of the missionary priests of Saint Snlpice, I sent 
for a coi)y. Among other nuggets of linguistic lore, I met with 
a word embalming his memory in the daily speech of the Indians of 
Caughnawaga. This fragment of the Mohawk tribe has been domi- 
ciled in Canada since 1670, when they left their ancestral seats on the 
Mohawk. Tourists doAvn the St. Lawrence, past the Lachine rapids, 
will remember their pretty village on the river bank, with its church 
enriched by the gifts of many a sovereign of France from Louis XIV 
to Eugenie. Those who read the sporting items in the newspapers 
will recall that last spring those same Caughnawaga Indians, born 
almost Avith a racket on their feet, and a lacrosse web in their hands, 
beat with ease, at New York, the champion American team just re- 
turned from their victories in Europe. Again some of those red men 
came into notice when Sir Garnet Wolseley, transporting them beyond 
Egypt, availed himself of their skill in moving his boats through the 
cataracts and rapids of the Nile. 

Cuoq's Iriquois Lexicon, under the word Kora, says: '' Monsieur, 
the abbe Ferland (in his history of Canada) points out the true origin 
of this word, in making it come from the name of the celebrated 
Arendt Van Corla?r. But it should be added further that from the 
Dutch governors of Orange and New Amsterdam the title of kora 
passed from, them to the English governors of Albany and New York, 
and thence in course to all the governors of New England. As 
a matter of fact, the governor-general of Canada finds himself invested 
with this title of honor, and for Her Majesty, the queen of Great 
Britain, they are accustomed to exalt more highly her glory by adding 
the epithet koioa, that is, 'the great.'" 

When the Canadian Indian of to-day would exquTss in his own 
tongue the divinity that doth hedge about Victoi'ia Kegina, he says 
kora-kowa, "the great Corher." The splendor of the empress of 
India shines among her red sul)jects by borrowed light. Fair as the 
moon and terrible to the red man as an army with banners, as is her 
imperial majesty, the sun that sup})lies the glory of lier prestige is the 
name of Van Curler — the original Moliawk Dutchman. Herein- is 
fulfilled the wise man's prophecy, "Seest thou a man who is diligent 
in his business, he shall stand before kings." 



4 Arendt Van Curler. 

* While on this subject of titles, let us note further the term " Onon- 
tio " used by the Iriquois before the time of Van Curler, and down to 
the conquest of Canada by Wolfe, and familiar to all readers of Colonial 
documents or Indian eloquence. On this word Cuoq remarks : " This 
name [Onontio] was given for the first time to the successor of Cham- 
plain to the government of 'Canada, Charles Hault, De Montmagny, 
Chevalier de Malte. We have seen the origin of the title of Kora 
given to the kings and queens of England, and to the English govern- 
ors of Canada. This title is, if we may so speak, of purely Iriquoise 
creation, since it is no other than that of the Hollandish governor 
Corlajr, pronounced by a savage. But it is otherwise with the title 
Onontio, first conferred upon the chevalier of Montmagny. They 
translated his name, and to this the missionaries must have lent their 
assistance, without which the savages could not even have suspected 
the meaning of Montmagny, the great mountain. It is noteworthy 
that in rendering the name of the French governor by Onontio, they 
have given only a free translation — the Iriquois word meaning liter- 
ally ' the beautiful mountain,' and not the great mountain. From 
the chevalier of Montmagny the title of Onontio passed to his suc- 
cessors until the title of the conquest (1760). For the kings of France 
they add the adjective kowa [the great]." 

I have been particular thus in summoning testimony to the worth of 
Van Curler citing from the aborigines, the first historic occupiers of the 
soil, because they stood between the rival nations contesting for the pos- 
session of this continent, and largely by their attitude decided its occu- 
pancy. And the one man who, more than any other, secured and 
maintained for the Dutch and the English the friendship of the Five 
Nations of the Iriquois, the most nearly civilized Indians, and who 
were advanced above all others in political knowledge, against the 
French and the Algonquin Indians, north of the St. Lawrence, was 
Arendt Van Curler. Bancroft, Parkmau, Higginson, Hildreth, O'Cal- 
laghau, Shea, Stevens, Brodhead, and, neither last nor least, our own 
historical scholar Pearson — name ever honorable to our city — agree 
in this one thing, viz. : That " the most momentous and far-reaching 
question ever brought to issue on this continent " — namely, that of 

* When, at the bi-centennial celebration of the city of Albany, in July, 1886, 
a delegation of these Indians from Canada stood in Pearl street awaiting the start 
of the great parade, I asked one of the young braves how they sjioke of Victoria, 
the queen of England. He answered at once, " Kora." JAn older Indian corrected 
him merely to add, " Kowa." The first one inquired of, assenting, rejoined, 
" Kora, Kowa." 



Arendt Van Chcrler. 5 

its possession by a Germanic or a Latin race — -hung largely upon 
another question, whicli side should win and hold the friendship of 
that i^owerful confederation of red men, who overawed or held in 
tribute the Indians from the Mississippi to the Atlantic, and from Lake 
Ohamplain to the Ohespeake. 

This was the question unanswered for a century and a half. 

In the first place, this mighty confederacy of tribes held, as their 
" long house," that wonderful portion of this continent which seems 
by nature created for empire, whether in the stone or the iron age, 
the Empire State it was then, the Empire State it is now. It holds 
the keys to the water-ways between the fresh and the salt seas, for its 
rivers run to the Atlantic, the St. Lawrence, the Mississippi and the 
Gulf of Mexico. Its land routes, fitted for trail, pike, plank, iron or 
steel roadways, are smoothed ready for foot or wheel, moccasin or 
tire by nature. Nowhere along the mountain-ribbed Atlantic coast is 
there such another long, level, natural roadway as that of the Iriquois 
trail between the cataracts of Cohoes and Niagara, now banded by the 
steel rails of two mighty corporations. 

From Champlain to Montcalm, the French by diplomacy, religion, 
threats, flattery, and all the resources of Gallic wit, force, and address 
endeavored to gain over the Iriquois to their king and cause; but ever 
loyal to *'the Covenant of Corlaer," they adhered to the Prince of 
Orange and the Sovereign of Great Britain. They acted as a stone- 
wall, a breakwater, against the storm and tide of French aggression, 
while the English colonies nourished their strength, and won this fair 
land, first from the Gaul, from Latin ideas and civilization, and then 
from King George and monarchy. 

What began that struggle which from a backwoods raid became a 
clashing of empires ? What part did Van Curler bear ? Was he " a 
Dutch clodliojiper," or a far-seeing statesman ? 

Let us go back twenty-one years before his arrival on this continent: 

In 1000, Cham])lain, in company with a war party of Hurons and 
Algou(|uins, proceeding against the Mohawks unwarrantal)ly interfered 
in tlieir tribal quarrels, and decided the scale of victory. The Mohawks 
were defeated by the power of gunpowder and invisible missiles. 
Again, in 1615, this Frenchman in glittering armor with five belching 
weap<ms went along with the Algonquins to the ]\rohawk country to 
besiege their castle. These proceedings aroused a spirit of hatred 
against the French, and to counterpoise the odds against them, the 
Iriquois sought alliance with the Dutch. Powder and ball were their 



6 Arendt Van Curler. 

first desires. Their motives were utterly selfish, when in 1617, two 
years after Champlain's second filibustering interference, they came to 
Fort Orange, and made a formal treaty with the Dutch. 

A compact made between two alien races on the basis of their mutual 
hatred to a third party is not likely to last, when the once enemy turns 
friend, or the old friend falls on adversity. Why was it, that the 
cruel, selfish savage kept inviolate for over a century this covenant 
sealed only with the sacrament of wampum belts, amid all tempta- 
tions to rupture ? Why did Dutch and British alike keep with even 
more faithfulness their word Avitli the weakening savages, even when 
they had exhausted the benefit of their service ? Why, amid all 
vicissitudes was their treaty negotiated with less fuss, ceremony and 
spectacular display than Wm. Penn's with the Lenni Lenapis — ob- 
served with better faith, too, than was the Philadelphia compact. 

In the painting of Benjamin West, by fascinating but uncertain 
legend, and by the praise of Voltaire, who, to sneer at religion, wrote 
a lying epigram, the Quaker's treaty has been given world-wide fame. 
The witty Frenchman said of it '' never sworn to, and never broken." 
History, however, demonstrates, that while Penn and the Friends kept 
their word, the people of Pennsylvania did not. In New York, the 
promises on either side were kept, until America and British them- 
selves came to blows, a calamity which fell heavily upon the Iriquois, 
and from which they never recovered. If it be objected that tlie raid 
and burning of Schenectady in 1690, and tlie five years Indian war 
under Kieft appear to militate against our statement, we have only to 
mention that the Schenectady massacre was by the French and 
proselyted savages from Canada, not of New York, while the five years 
war under Kieft was waged by Indians not Iriquois. This war, by the 
way, was healed nominally by Stuyvesant, but actually by Van Curler 
in 1660. 

I am glad that a distinguished gentleman of the legal profession 
asked me " Who was the founder of Schenectady ? Was he any more 
than a Dutch clodhopper ?" I can safely answer that he was a scholar 
and a gentleman, fluent with his pen, possessing a gift by no means to 
be despised — the mastery of languages. He was a man of systematic 
mind, and so faithful to his trust and vow, as to recall a Roman of 
classic days. Withal, he was so kind of heart, so full of deep con- 
viction of conscience along with a power of rising above the narrow- 
ness of sect and nationality, as to suggest a Christian indeed. Brave 
as a lion, he feared neither round-robin conspirators, nor the schem- 



Arendt Van Curler. 7 

ing lawyer who used his profession mainly to molest honest men, nor 
crafty savages, nor perfidious French. Further, he had the eye of an 
engineer and strategist, with the foresight of a statesman. 

Arendt Van Curler was the first cousin of Kilian Van Kensselaer, 
and came to this country in 1630. Of the original company of ten 
members, or "co-patroons," all on the same footing to plant colonies 
in America, Kilian Van Eensselaer seems to have been the most 
successful, and we shall see why. Others formed colonies along the 
Hudson in New Netherlands. Others disagreeing, or thinking more 
profitable ventures could be made in the East Indies, gave up America 
and tried the Spice Islands, Formosa and Japan. Vries became the 
famed navigator who left his name on the large island near the bay of 
Yedo. Hendrick Hamel went out as supercargo to Nagasaki, and was 
wrecked in Oorea, ke^^t a prisoner, and escaping, got home to Holland, 
to find his old friends Kilian Van Rensselaer, dead, and Van Curler, 
drowned, in far off America ; but Eensselaerwyck had prospered. 
Why ? The patroon never visited the colony, but confided all to his 
agent. Van Curler, the first suj)erintendent. Hear what L. P. Brockett 
says : " The administration of Justice, and the management of its 
financial affairs, he committed to a commissary-general. Fortunate in 
the selection * * * his colony prospered much more than that 
at New Amsterdam, and it was to the good offices of Vau Curler, or 
Corlaer, the first commissary that the colonists at New Amsterdam 
Avere indebted more than once, for their preservation from destruction 
at the hands of the savages" [during Kieft's mal-administration]. 
This excellent man cultivated the most friendly relations with the 
Indians, and so strong was their affection for him, that ever after 
they applied the name Corlaer to the governors of New York, as the 
highest title of respect. " So too, from the date of the scttlt-nieut of 
Albany, the county was never invaded by these sons of the forest. 
The Schuyler family, for several generations carrying out the policy 
inaugurated by Van Curler, exerted a powerful influence over the 
Indians. Unfortunately, Van Curler left no descendants to keep 
alive the memory of his services. 

Van Curler's jurisdiction, as superintendent and justice of the 
colony, extended from Beeren Island in the Hudson to the mouth of 
the Mohawk, and he was also colonial secretary until 1642. He pro- 
vided food and sustenance for the immigrants, promptly bringing 
them up from Manhattan Island, enrolling them, arranging for their 
houses and assigning their farms, while guarding against famine, dis- 



8 Arendt Van Curler. 

order, and the foes of the forest and from Canada. He took every right 
means to increase honest trade. His devotion to his master brought 
him into collision with the traders " in the bush." A protest against 
him was fomented by Van der Donck ; and his enemies put their names 
to the paper in a circle, so that it should not be known who had first 
signed it, or in other words, who was the ring leader. Their activity 
brought him into such temporary unpopularity that some were for 
driving him out of the colony as a rogue. Others wished to assassi- 
nate him. 

Evidently life in a frontier settlement in the woods was then very 
much what it is now, and the characters much the same. The firm- 
ness, courage, fair play, and unwavering good nature and honesty of 
Van Curler carried him safely through the crisis. By degrees, the 
• popularity of the superintendent returned, and Van der Donck left the 
settlement. Van Curler's prayer, if it were identical with Job's, was 
answered, for his rival did ''write a book'' in 1655, which is still 
valuable as a literary photograph of colonial New York, the Nether- 
lands in America. Van Curler, according to orders, had " concentra- 
ted " the immigrants into a Kerch hurte, a parish or church, neighbor- 
hood, near the Beaver's creek or Greenbush ferry. He built a church 
and parsonage. This was the first protestant church edifice built as 
such and so consecrated on the continent of America. 

The domine* Megapolensis began his work among the people, morals 
improved, home life began to be more stable and retired, and pros- 
perity was laid on a sui'e foundation. Van Curler and the parson were 
always good friends, the layman ever taking counsel with his clerical 
brother, and receiving his advice Avith respect. Thus the unseemly 
war between bench and pulpit, which disgraced Manhattan island, was 
unknown in Rensselaerwyck. Through all the stormy administration 
of Governor Kieft, and the five years' war which wiped out so many 
Dutch settlements on the Hudson, and nearly annihilated Manhattan, 

* There is no other way of spelling the title of a pastor of a Reformed [DutchJ church in 
Holland, America, South Africa, or the East Indies, but that in which it is invariably 
spelled in the Dutch records. It is always domine and not " dominie." The Dutch title is 
the unaltered Latin. " Dominie," in English and Scotch inay mean a parson of some 
kind ; it does mean a teacher or schoolmaster. This orthography of domine is the usage 
in Corwin's " Manual of the Reformed church in America," in Pearson's " Schenectady 
First Church Memorial," in The Christian Intelligencer, and in the writing of all critical 
and careful writers (^except where printers tamper with their MSS), who write concerning 
ministers of the Reformed churches in the Netherlands, or their offspring. Further, to 
join a Scotch term savoring of cant or slang to a Latinized form of a Hollander's name is 
to do something which scholarly Hollanders would never approve of. 



Arendt Van Curler. 9 

Van Curler's firm hand in the colony and unbounded influence over 
all the Indians, kept the advancing prosperity of the colony of Rens- 
selaerwyck in the safe path. It was in the midst of danger of infec- 
tious lawlessness and savage irritation, that he made his first journey 
into the Mohawk country. Of this wonderful valley he was not the 
original explorer, though he was probably the first white visitor who 
described and fully appreciated it. 

Humanity prompted him to this westward errand. News came to 
his ears that two French })riests were in the hands of the ]\lohawks 
near Caughnawaga, now Fonda. Like tigers with their prey, the 
savages intended to enjoy the torture of their victims before burning 
or tomahawking them. Van Curler Avas a Dutch patriot and a 
Protestant of Orange dye, but he was more — a Christian and a man. 
""Why risk life among the bloodthirsty savages, and intermeddle to 
save a papist and a Frenchman," some doubtless may have said. Van 
Curler, without argument or reservation, quickly collected ransom to 
the value of 600 guilders equal to $250 then, or perhaps $500 now. 
He rode up the valley, in September, 1642. It was then dressed in 
the gorgeous livery of autumn, and bright with many an acre of ripen- 
ing maize. He called it " the fairest land that the eyes of man ever 
rested upon," but the moral beauty of his own act exceeded even that 
of nature. He did not succeed in ransoming or rescuing the priest. 
Father Jogues; but he secured a promise from the savages not to kill 
or further torture him. Afterwards, Van Curler assisted Jogues to 
escape from Albany to France, where at the imperial court at Ver- 
sailles the scars of his fingers which the savages, like wild beasts, had 
chewed and from Avhicli they had torn out his nails, were kissed by 
proud lords and lovely ladies as of those of a saint. Again this devoted 
missionary returned to America, and Avas again captured by the in- 
satiate Mohawks. This first Roman Catholic missionary on the soil 
of our state, and the discover of the Lake of the Holy Sacrtiment, now 
ignobly named George, finally suffered martyrdom at Ossuercnon, near 
Auriesville. On the hills overlooking the station of the West Shore 
railway, he yielded up his life. In his honor, a shrine to the Virgin, 
" Our Lady of Martyrs/' is now erected. Yet with nearly equal pro- 
priety, is the name of Van Curler the exemplar of noble humanity 
linked to the spot. 

This was but one of the many visits Avhich Van Curler made to the 
Indians at their homes and council-fires. Having mastered tlieft- ver- 
nacular, he was able to hear from their own lips, their side of every 



10 Are7idt Van Curler. 

question. Hence, he had never to trust to interpreters, or to rely 
upon hearsay or uncertain information. When in 1646 Stuyvesant 
arrived, and began his administration by settling the Indian difficulties 
which had afflicted the lower settlements, he sent first of all to Van 
Curler, for advice and direction. Later at a great convention of chiefs 
of all the non Iriquois nations, held at Esopus in 1660, an agreement 
of peace was made. In this work, Stuyvesant was the figure-head, 
and Van Curler the real diplomatist and peace-maker. 

One of the many journeys made in carrying out the policy of justice 
and peace with the Indians brought him to the house of Jonas Bronck, 
who has given his name to one of the rivers and villages — Bronx 
andBronxville — of Westchester county. Here, after punishment in- 
flicted on the actual murderers, peace was made with the Wickwaskect 
tribe, at the house of the burgher whose widow Antonia afterwards 
became Van Curler's wife. They were married in the autumn of 1646, 
and settled down in one of the best houses of the settlement of Rens- 
selaerwyck, for she was deserving of it, being as her husband states, 
" a good housekeeper." 

Having now the prospect of domestic happiness, desirous also of 
possessing a farm, the affairs of the colony withal being settled. Van 
Curler leaving his bride behind him, visited Patria (Holland) to report 
to his lord the patroon, and get a lease for his " bowerie" which was 
near Cohoes. 

The patroon Kilian Van Eensselaer died in 1646, leaving the colony 
in the hands of his son Johannes. 

Van Curler returning to America went to live on his farm, and there 
enjoyed the pleasures of unofficial life. Yet his days were far from 
inactive. He seized every opportunity to educate and benefit the In- 
dians, rescue Christian captives, and cement the bonds of friendship 
Avith the red men. Van Curler owned a brewery in Rensselaerwyck 
and believed that beer was good for Christian and savage; but the use 
of brandy, rum, Avhiskey, and the various concoctions of "fire-water" 
he condemned. He attempted, in vain, however, to influence the In- 
dians against drunkenness, and to prevent the traders from selling 
strong liquors. At one time, when, on account of troubles largely 
occasioned by liipior, the relations of the settlers and the Mohawks 
were strained, we find Van Curler leading twenty-five of the chief men 
of the settlement and proceeding to Caughnawaga. There on the 
17th of September, 1659, after the calumet had been smoked with the 
sachems Van Curler made a forcible speech, pointing out firewater as 



Arendt Van Curler. 11 

the potent cause of their troubles. His arguments and eloquence were 
satisfactory and successful, and the links of the covenant chain were 
forged anew. 

Now came the time for another of the great achievements of our 
hero's life. Largely through his acts and character, the way Avas 
paved for the peaceful settlement of the Mohawk valley by the whites. 
Food had become scarce near Fort Orange, farmers wanted homes, 
but were not willing to settle at Rensselaerwyck under semi-feudal 
restrictions. Having left Patria, they wished to hold their land in 
fee simple, and when dying to bequeath the fruits of their toil to their 
children. This, under the patroon, they coiild not do. Van Curler 
sympathized with them, and himself longed to possess land not as a 
fief, but as a holding forever. Accordingly he applied, June 18th, 
1661, to Gov. Stuyvesant for permission to purchase ^'the great flat" 
of the lower Mohawk valley from the Indians, called by them Scho- 
nowe, including the site of one of their villages, Schenectady. Owing 
to influences emanating from Rensselaerwyck, the privilege of trade 
was not granted until 1672, and at first the little frontier settlement 
was wholly agricultural. Van Curler for years vainly protested against 
this churlish and illiberal spirit which savored of the* dog in the man- 
ger, and so long hindered the growth of a true commonwealth. Van 
Curler's plea was for unshackled commerce, free trade and farmer's 
rights, as against monopoly, semi-feudalism and whiskey. 

Here note the liberal principles on which Van Curler founded his 
settlement; they were justice, temperence, and liberty. Wm. Penn 
has been lauded for buying the land of the Indians. Van Curler did 
the same. He fought the whiskey-sellers whose fiery liquid destroyed 
the red men as did small pox, and turned reasoning men into mur- 
derous brutes. He pleaded for the rights of trade to actual settlers on 
wild lands as against monopoly, and for the privilege of holding land 
in fee simple, and bequeathing it to children. Here, having taken 
the subject of my sketch beyond the boundaries of Eenssalaerwyck, it 
js proper for me to postpone the continuance of my story. In a fur- 
ther and more elaborate study, I hope to present the life and works of 
Van Curler in befitting dress. Suffice it to say that in 1664, on the 
conquest of New Netherlands by the English, one of the first acts of 
Colonel Nicholls was to send for Van Curler to consult as to his policy 
with the Indians. Two years later, the French expedition of Courcelles 
was saved from starvation and probable annihilation by Van Curler. 
Hastening from Schenectady with provisions he succored his famishing 



12 Aretidf Van Curler. 

fellow Christians who had fallen into ambuscade, while also warning 
them off English ground. Had the founder of the settlement lived, 
the frightful massacre of 1690 would, doubtless, never have been con- 
summated. In 1667, while on a visit to Canada, by invitation of the 
French Governor Tracy, Van Curler was drowned during a squall in 
Lake Champlain. *' In the middle of the Lake where Corlaer was 
drowned,'' reads the old chronicle, but the exact spot we do not know. 
For a half century or more this sheet of water was named and known 
to the English only as " Corlaer's Lake," while " Corlaer's Bay" is 
still on the maps. 

Craving pardon of my hearers, and of this honorable Albany Insti- 
tute for presenting so fragmentary a paper, pleading shortness of 
notice, and press of imperative duties as my excuse, I beg leave to 
state that life and leisure being given, I hope to do fuller justice to a 
name most noble among those who laid the foundations of the great- 
ness of the Empire State. 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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014 114 067 A 



